MARKETING MIX: Branding stags forsake glitz for giant inflatables

Marketing, Thursday, 15 May 2003, 12:00am,

Forget Cannes, Ascot and Wimbledon. The real A-list invite for marketing and media types this summer must be the wedding of Johnny Hornby, founder of Clemmow Hornby Inge.

Hornby is tying the knot with HHCL/Red Cell account director Claire Griffiths at an undisclosed venue.

If you're lucky enough to be on the guest list, you will be rubbing shoulders with best man Charles Dunstone, the multi-millionaire founder of Carphone Warehouse; Hornby's best political chum, Peter Mandelson; Sky marketing director Charles Ponsonby; Grey Advertising chief executive Garry Lace; and a host of other brand-erati.

Anyway, the stag night took place recently. And where did the 18 testosterone-fuelled movers and shakers head off to? Dublin? Las Vegas? Perhaps 12 pints, a curry and a stripper in Southend?

No, to the Leicestershire country residence of David Ross, of course.

And apparently the highlight was a game of 'It's a knockout' in the multi-acre grounds of Ross' pile.

Mix ponders what things have come to when even the creme de la creme of our business have begun emulating Stuart Hall and minor royalty?

This article was first published on Marketing